Sudanese Christian Woman Who Almost Died for Her Faith Reveals Horrific Experience Giving Birth in Prison

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Mariam Yehya Ibrahim, the Sudanese Christian woman who was recently rearrested just one day after a judge threw out her death sentence for apostasy last month, spoke out in an interview with CNN Tuesday, describing the horrific prison conditions under which she delivered her baby girl.

“When I was in prison I was only thinking about my children and how I was going to give birth. I was most scared of giving birth in prison,” said Ibrahim, who is now once again out of prison and staying at an undisclosed location. “I gave birth chained — not cuffs but chains on my legs. I couldn’t even open my legs, so the women had to lift me off the table.”

In addition to that traumatic experience, her baby girl might never walk due to the horrific circumstances under which she was born.

Ibrahim, 27, also pushed back against new legal charges that have been waged against her after she and her family were detained at a Sudanese airport and she was accused of traveling with falsified documents.

“My paperwork came from the embassy. It’s 100 percent correct,” she told CNN, admitting that she is miserable in the wake of legal issues that have prevented her from leaving the country.

For now, she and her husband Daniel Wani, an American citizen, are in a safe place in Sudan, waiting to find out what will happen with the latest charges against her.

She became a Christian after her father, a Muslim, abandoned her family. Her Ethiopian mother, a Christian, then raised her and she adopted her mother’s faith. Ibrahim later married a Christian man named Daniel Wani, a U.S. citizen.

Shariah law in Sudan requires that children follow their father’s faith, which led to the initial charges against her. Originally, Ibrahim was sentenced to 100 lashes for adultery, since her marriage to a Christian is not permitted under the law, according to the New York Daily News.

Despite the uncertainty and all that has unfolded since her apostasy charges were thrown out, Ibrahim said she’s not afraid and that she simply wants to leave Sudan for the U.S.